by Rusty Ellis
A new era is underway for West Carroll High School football, as Peabody offensive coordinator Jay Taylor has been named the program’s new head coach ahead of the 2025 season.
“Coach (Shane) Jacobs came to me and told me about his opportunity to go elsewhere, and that’s really when I started looking,” Taylor said. “When the West Carroll job came open, they posted it, and I just thought it would be a great opportunity for me to be a head coach.”
The appeal to Taylor really arose when he considered the program’s history and the resources he had available to him in a job such as this one.
“Being from McKenzie, I know the athletes that have come through here,” Taylor said. “They’re good, tough, hard-nosed kids and I always thought the upside was there. You can mold young men, and win a few ballgames along the way.”
Taylor spent 10 seasons in Trenton as apart of Jacobs’ coaching staff, a run that included a 44-game winning streak, three gold balls and over 1,000 straight days without a loss.
And while the program made those accomplishments look easy, Taylor saw day in and day out just how much work the players and coaches put in to achieve those goals.
“We had great players, and nothing can replace those guys,” Taylor said. “They practiced hard and played hard, and they did everything we asked them to. We had a couple lucky bounces along the way, which you have to have, but it was a great ride.”
And much like Jacobs has said previously, Taylor reiterates that the community in Trenton played just as big a role in all of the Golden Tide’s success as anything else.
“It was unbelievable, I’m not from Trenton, but they accepted me and adopted me,” Taylor said. “That community, we never had to ask for anything. It was ‘Hey, what do you need? We’ll make it happen.’ I was lucky to be apart of it for 10 years.”
As far as his new role, Taylor’s already gotten a head start. He got a chance to watch the team work on Wednesday afternoon, and he says he’s even more excited than he already was.
“I feel better today after watching them,” Taylor said. “I think it’s a great group of kids, and I’m already excited for next season.”
So that begs the question: what does a Jay Taylor-coached football team look like?
Well, even though he’s done his time as an offensive coordinator, Taylor says he plans on emphasizing both sides of the ball as equal importance.
“First thing is we have to play great defense and we have to have great line play,” Taylor said. “If we get great defense and great play along both the offensive and defensive line, we can win some ballgames. We’re going to be hard-nosed and run the football, and if we can do that, we can win a lot of football games.”
